Neal Middleton of ROYAL BLISS talks Chasing The Sun

Neal Middleton of Royal Bliss interview

This week, Salt Lake City’s Royal Bliss dropped its latest full length studio album, “Chasing the Sun“. The day before its release, frontman, Neal Middleton connected with Metalholic to discuss the record and the ever challenging journey the band has been on for over 16 years.

The album’s title is perhaps a poetic twist for Royal Bliss which has seen an innumerable share of hurdles from car accidents, to ski accidents, to internal collapses at their former record label, to Middleton’s own 35-foot fall which was supposed to have paralyzed him for life. Neal and Royal Bliss have continually picked themselves up by the bootstraps and soldiered on.

“We’ve always told each other, as long as we keep moving steps forward, we’ll never give up, we’ll never quit,” Middleton said. “As long as each year we advance as musicians and we advance as people, then we’ll never give up. It’s kind of like going to school to become a doctor for 8 or 10 years. That was our college, playing in a band.”

That perseverance continues on “Chasing the Sun“, which the band recorded at home in Utah and released on its own label, after financing the album through a successful, fan-driven, Kickstarter campaign. The first single, “Cry Sister” has been tearing up active rock radio all winter. During our interview below, Middleton talks about the new album, dealing with being apart from family, his stint on The Voice, Kickstarter, and more. He even reveals which television show he’s addicted to. Check it out, then pick up your copy of “Chasing the Sun“.